Following his arrest in Mexico Friday, the world's most-wanted drug lord was escorted onto a plane. Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman was caught six months after tunneling out of a maximum security prison. (Jan. 8)
AP

Federal agents and members of the Mexican Army with an armored vehicle patrol outside the high security prison Altiplano where Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, is detained in the city of Almolaya de Juarez, Mexico, 09 January 2016. 'El Chapo' Guzman was arrested on last 08 January. General Attorney of Mexico Arely Gomez said one of the reasons that facilitated the capture of Guzman was his recent contacts with producers and other personalities of the cinema industry to make a movie.(Photo: EPA)

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government said Saturday it had started the process to extradite captured cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera to the United States, where he would face organized crime, drug and money laundering charges – and presumably find it harder to escape from prison for a third time.

“With the capture of Guzmán Loera it should start the respective extradition proceedings, which, according to the Extradition Law, has several steps,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement.

The office gave no timetable for the process, though Guzmán, upon being notified, had three days to contest the extradition and 20 days to present evidence in his defense. Guzmán also had the right to seek injunctions against his extradition, but the attorney general’s office says he had unsuccessfully sought similar actions while on the lam for the past six months.

Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, right, is escorted by soldiers and marines to a waiting helicopter, at a federal hangar in Mexico City, on Jan. 8, 2016.(Photo: AP)

U.S. officials twice requested Guzmán’s extradition in July and August of 2015 after he had slipped out of a maximum-security prison through an almost mile-long tunnel. Federal judges accepted the requests and issued arrest warrants for the purpose of extradition.

The extradition issue has been a thorny one for Mexico, which preferred to imprison Guzmán near Mexico City instead of sending him to the United States – in spite of fears he might escape.

Extradition requests made after his February 2014 arrest, but prior to his escape, were denied. The then-attorney general Jesús Murillo Karam infamously said Guzmán would go to the United States after serving his sentence in Mexico, “(In) about 300, 400 years.”

Extraditions of cartel bosses have been carried out since Guzmán's most recent escape. Texas-born enforcer Edgar Valdéz Villarreal, better known as “La Barbie,” plead guilty to drug charges in an Atlanta court last week.

Some in Mexico expressed opposition to the extradition of high-profile criminals, however.

“I don’t see it as correct that to pay for the sins of Mexican authorities, their responsibilities should be discharged in another country,” said Francisco Martínez Neri, leader of the left-wing Democratic Revolution Party in the lower house of Congress.

A photo believed to show the end of the tunnel through which "El Chapo" could have escaped from the Altiplano prison at a house in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico, on July 12, 2015. Yuri Cortez, AFP/Getty Images

Yellow tape put by security forces of the Office of the Attorney General is shown around the house at the end of the tunnel through which Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman could have escaped from the Altiplano prison, in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico,. Yuri Cortez, AFP/Getty Images

In this June 10, 1993 file photo, Joaquin Guzman, also called "El Chapo," is shown to the media after his arrest at the high security prison of Almoloya de Juarez, on the outskirts of Mexico City. Damian Dovarganes, AP

In this Feb. 22, 2014, file photo, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, head of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, is escorted to a helicopter in Mexico City, following his capture overnight in the beach resort town of Mazatlan. Eduardo Verdugo, AP

Interested in this topic? You may also want to view these photo galleries:

On Saturday, Guzman was back in the same prison he escaped from six months ago through an elaborate tunnel. This time, however, the Mexican military stationed a pair of tanks outside the Altiplano prison near Mexico City prior to his arrival.

Guzman was captured Friday morning after marines raided a home in the city of Los Mochis. ​Attorney General Arely Gómez González said Friday night that Guzman wanted to make a biopic and reached out to actors and producers. That tipped off investigators to his location.

After his daring escape — his second in 14 years — Guzman also went about building more tunnels. Authorities tailed an expert in building to tunnels to his location in Los Mochis, Gómez said.

As head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, which smuggles large quantities of drugs into the United States, Guzman was called Public Enemy No. 1 by the Chicago Crime Commission.

Guzman's first escape came in 2001, with the assistance of prison guards. He spent years on the run, becoming the head of the Sinoloa cartel before his recapture in 2014.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch called Friday's capture "a blow to the international drug-trafficking syndicate he is alleged to have led, a victory for the citizens of both Mexico and the United States, and a vindication of the rule of law in our countries."